Three stories out of England

England’s National Health Service is failing.  Yes, everyone gets treatment, but it’s lousy treatment, so its women die faster than women in just about any other European country.  Because the government is the only game in town, efficiency is nonexistent (no competition to stiffen bureaucratic spines) and women die.

The headlines about vanishing species are always big.  The headlines about newly discovered species are always small.  I mention this point to remind us — again — that scientists know so much less than they think they do.

And while I’m on the point of foolish scientists, the ash cloud that closed all those airports — well, it wasn’t an ash cloud, it was a whoops.  A very, very expensive whoops from scientists who have their hands way too close to way too many economic triggers.